Eruption of Long Lake and Mud Lake, in Vermont. 43 
——_ informant, one of the individuals concerned in let: 
ting off the water, res¢mbled Heat gravel. 
This hard-pan, reached out from the shore into the lake, 
for a breadth of five or six rods, resting on the bottom ; and 
was found along the whole northern extremity. Being rath- 
er feebly and doubtfully sustained by the mass of sand under- 
neath, on which it lay as on an inclined plane, it supported 
the superincumbent water, and formed the only solid barrier, 
which Ce the contents of Long Lake from descending 
into Mud Lake 
Mud Lake was originally three-fourths of a mile in length 
from north to south, and halfa mile in breadth. Its shores, 
both on the western and eastern sides, soon rose into high 
grounds ; between which, and over the bed of Mud Lake, 
waters of Long Lake, if let out northward, must necessarily 
past ean Lake was a mass of thick deep 
mud, tough and gritty, of a rusty dark blue, ‘many feet in 
thickness, and when dry becoming of a pale blue, and of a 
hard solid texture. This lake was originally deep, though 
Jess so than the other. Barton River, its outlet, descended 
aid rapidly through a rough uneven country, over a bed 
f sand and pebbles, for about five miles, and then more 
ethteally, and with a margin of meadow on each for 
six miles, to the village in Barton. — All this 7 pores with the 
exception of a few cleared spots at Keene-Corner, and in 
Barton, the country was in 1810 a thick forest, on ren sides 
of the stream, to its very banks. At Keene-Corner, four miles 
e, stooda grist-mill and a saw- mill, both own- 
ed by a Mr. Wilson ; but the stream was so small that, in the 
dry season, the supply of water was insufficient for the mills. 
About 7 ailes lower down, it unites with a still larger stream 
the outlet of Belle Pond, a beautifal lake in 
owned ray a Mr. Blodget ; and three miles lower, were the 
mills of a Mr. Enos. 
The insufficient supply of water at Wilson’s mills, was a se- 
rious inconvenience to the i itants of Keene-Comer, as 
the water in the two lakes, and the nature of the 
them, er stetttealie aint had 
frequently provoked discussions of the pee 
was not practicable to let out a part of the water rof I 
Lake into Mud Lake, and ‘has jars an additional su 
